AIG Bailout

If you owe the bank $10,000 that's your problem (so goes the joke), but if you owe the bank $10,000,000 it's the bank's problem.

And if you ad a few more zeros it becomes the government's problem.

And make no mistake, this bailout was necessary, given the current circumstances.

And yet one wonders, need it have been?

Or, could it be, that the AIG bailout is yet another example of the GOP's favorite crisis management technique, management by crisis. I.e: ignore a problem until it reaches catastrophic levels, then scramble like mad to find enough duct tape to keep the thing from falling apart?

And, before I get into a round of Bush-bashing, let me make clear, I don't think this problem is Bush's per se, and I don't think Democrats are immune from procrastination, but the GOP's governing philosophy (if it can be called such) seems to lend itself to such disasters.

Best enunciated by St. Ronald Reagan: "Government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem."

And, since government is the problem, why not staff it with incompetent, corrupt cronies? (Katrina)

Why not use it to enrich your friends? (Iraq)

Why not ignore your rival's warnings about the world's dangers? (9/11)

Why not deregulate and let the free market's invisible hand rule and let the chips fall where they may?

But of course, when push comes to shove Republicans only want the chips to fall where they may when they fall on someone else.

I'd post more examples of the results of the GOP's "government is the problem" philosophy, but my head hurts.

[x-posted at Daily Kos]